Thoughts, words, coffee and cake

Auditing what I share – how do we use social media?

January 14, 2016

Scrolling through some social media feeds earlier today, I was dismayed to discover a high percentage of feeds that seemed to just consist of endless moaning, vitriol, and blame. It made me think about my own social media feeds, and the messages I convey, intentionally or not.

I had a quick look through my personal Twitter and was a little embarrassed that yes, a lot of tweets there seemed to be coming from a negative place. If something bad had happened to me, or something mildly inconvenient took place, it seemed I took to social media to vent and release a little of my anger at the so-called injustice.

My Facebook page was slightly different. Not negative, no. But mundane, and dare I say it, a little self-absorbed. I wondered what message I was sending out into the world, to my friends. How did this compare with the impact I wanted to have?

In the endless diatribe of negativity both online and offline in the recent years, I want to send some positivity out into the world. If I can bring a small smile to someone’s day, or share something inspiring or interesting with somebody, then I’m using social media for good. I’m not here to start a moaning match. I’m not here to fish for compliments or make passive aggressive comments. I just want to be the best person I can be, both online and off.

Auditing what I share has made me more mindful of just how easy it is to express frustration or negativity online. If I think about the impact this has on someone reading it, then this gives me incentive to catch myself and try to turn that negativity into a positive. I don’t want to create a false impression of my life, and will carry on being more open and honest with myself. But a fleeting comment might just nudge someone else’s day into taking a turn for the worse.

I’ve recently been think about the way I want social media to impact upon me too, and what I want to take from it. Instead of moaning about how much I hated Facebook but didn’t really want to give it up being as all my friends are on it – I decided to make it work for me, rather than against me. I drew up a few simple things I wanted from the site, and resolved to get rid of the rest.

I wanted to find out more about Permaculture, nature, and the outdoors. I wanted to be inspired by my newsfeed, not depressed or frustrated. I didn’t want to be bothered by people’s problems, selfish as this may seem. I muted posts that made me feel inadequate or like my life just didn’t quite match up. I unliked pages that I never looked at or that were no longer relevant. And now, I quite like my Facebook feed, full of nicely curated articles, big ideas, and happy news.
I did the same on all of my Twitter accounts, and cleared up my YouTube subs box too. I felt refreshed, and infinitely more positive.

Going forward I want to continue to share on social media. But to share interesting, relevant articles about things I’m passionate about. To look for positive news in a media stream filled with war, politics, death and poverty. To catch myself and become mindful of my mood – and being aware of the effect my posts may have. I don’t want to be mundane.

If I’m going to continue to use social media, then I want it to be for good.

1 thought on “Auditing what I share – how do we use social media?”

Great food for thought. I was recently listening to The Minimalists’ podcast and they spoke about using social media with intention. It’s a tool, and we can’t let ourselves be unconsciously sucked in. It takes effort, though, to really think about each post/share/like. I love your idea of making the effort to share positivity. If we can see/hear/read more positive things, it can only benefit us. We already have a negativity bias as humans, and so it’s tempting to let that extend through social media.

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Hi everybody, I’m Sal – a 30-something blogger from the UK writing about slow living, nature, books and mental health, whilst attempting to stay uncluttered in a cluttered world…!
I love reading, thunderstorms, wild moorland, music of all forms, being a bit of a hippy, coffee, trees and all of the cake.
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